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I have been craving broccoli something fierce lately. Yes, broccoli as in helloooo, need iron much? Because I am apparently that predictable of a pregnant woman. Not that this bothers me, I’m actually relieved to be craving something, anything but grapes for five minutes. Why I can’t be a normal pregnant woman, mainlining ice cream sundaes and pickles and peanut butter simultaneously, I don’t know, but if grapes and broccoli must be my (terrifically boring) torch to bear, so be it.

Alex has a cousin that sometimes graces family gatherings a slaw-style broccoli salad I adore, with chunks of raw broccoli and dried cranberries and some toasted pine nuts or almonds, in a mayo-based dressing. Alex and I don’t agree on this — he of the oh so very difficult vegetables and sweet things cannot be paired persuasion and me of the can’t hear you, too busy cronch-cronch-cronching — thus I’d yet to give it a spin at home. Yet last week I saw a link from Apartment Therapy’s Kitchen in which they’d made a broccoli slaw very close to the one I like where a commenter suggested people try it with my favorite Buttermilk Dressing instead. I love it when other people give me better ideas of what to do with my own favorite recipes.* Almost as much as I love that dressing.

Thus the combination of a fierce broccoli craving, an overdue broccoli slaw and the notion of having any excuse to make an extra batch of that dressing was all too much for me to bear, and you’ve never seen someone so eagerly lunge at the raw broccoli before noon on a Monday. Seriously, there was a gaggle of kids standing in the way and I was practically tapping my feet waiting for them to move on, gah, why must kids be so slow? Mama needs her broccoli! And now you can’t say you weren’t warned about what a weirdo pregnancy turns you into.

* I should totally do a series of posts about recipes I’ve updated with reader suggestions that made them so much better. Remind me! I’m forgetful these days. For example, yesterday morning, I tore apart the bed and my nightstand looking for my iPhone and still couldn’t find it. Small issue: I was speaking to my mother on it while I was digging around. I fear this might be a sign of things to come.

Slaw, previously: As I am sure a couple people have picked up, I’m a little slaw-crazy, thus if broccoli slaw isn’t your bag (and heh, when has broccoli ever won a popularity contest?) here are a few other places you might want to start: Not Your Mama’s Coleslaw, Dead Simple Slaw, Green Onion Slaw, Tangy Indian Cabbage Salad and then, as if this wasn’t enough, four more slaw recipes (Blue Cheese Slaw, Napa Cabbage Slaw, Radicchio Slaw and Pickled Coleslaw) in an article I did for NPR a couple years ago. Happy crunching!

Buttermilk Dressing (Adapted from this salad.)
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1/3 cup mayonnaise (this is more than is in the original, to thicken the dressing further)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (or, you could just use a little extra red onion to simplify it)

Trim broccoli and cut it into large chunks. From here, you can either feed it through your food processor’s slicing blade, use a mandoline to cut it into thin slices, or simply had chop it into smaller pieces. I used the stem and the flowerets, but if you have a broccoli stem aversion you can just use the tops. (P.S. My favorite way to prep the stems is to peel them — the tough skin is why most people think they don’t like broccoli stems; the broccoli underneath is juicy and crisp — then use the mandoline or a knife to cut them into thin slices.)

Toss the sliced broccoli with the almonds, cranberries and red onion in a large bowl. Meanwhile, whisk the dressing ingredients in a smaller one, with a good pinch of salt and black pepper. Pour the dressing over the broccoli (if you’ve skipped the stems, you might not want it all; I otherwise found this to be the perfect amount) and toss it well. Season well with salt and pepper to taste.

Should keep up to a week in the fridge, if you don’t have any pregnant women nearby.

Variation: I bet this slaw would be equally good with cauliflower. I might use dried currants instead of cranberries, walnuts instead of almonds and maybe even some celery slices thrown in. Have fun with it.

The grocery store in my hometown had something like this with bacon and shredded cheddar cheese…it was my favorite. I’ve only ever seen it done with Miracle Whip, so I’m excited to try this dressing, as I can’t buy Miracle Whip where I live!

As a mother of two small weird people (who I still look at and wonder about), I will testify to the bizarre nature of being pregnant. And I can just say pray very hard that you are never on bedrest. Yeck.

And a very small sidenote – does it ever strike you as funny/odd/interesting that YOUR kids might use some of your recipes marked “Not your mama’s” and that it WILL be their mama’s? Hey – this is something that will hit you as funny, either now or some sleepless am.

I love this salad and would humbly suggest adding a little crumbled bacon, perhaps even sliced shallots cooked with the bacon. Hey, you get a higher caloric allowance when you’re pregnant.

Ohhh I’ve also done the whole ‘looking for my phone’ while talking on it. I also had the unfortunate luck of complaining to the person I was on the phone with about not being able to find it. There was a shocked silence followed by a “you’re kidding, right?”
And I can’t even blame it on pregnancy.

Love the onomatapoetic (oh good lord there’s no way I spelled that right) nature of the “cronch-cronch-cronching.” Hilarious. I usually use mayo thinned with lemon juice for broccoli slaw, but the buttermilk dressing sounds great!

I’m a bit averse to slaw – I think it is the typical abundance of mayo that gets me, but this looks great. I will have to try working my way through your slaw recipes and see if I can overcome my aversion! (Your iPhone story totally made me laugh!)

I love this salad…my variation uses sunflower seeds instead of almonds and raisins instead of cranberries. Also, I add crumbled bacon. Mmmmm….dang it. Now I want it and I can’t have it since I just started taking a blood thinner and broccoli is a no-no. Dang it!

I love broccoli slaw. I use a very similar recipe minus the cranberries and substituting pine nuts for almonds. I can’t wait to try this with the cranberries and almonds. I’m suddenly feeling as though I’ve been missing something all these years.

Um, I’m feeling a little bit honored and down right proud right now…
I’m the aforementioned commenter from the Kitchn who laps up your buttermilk dressing by the spoonful. Your blog is one of the first I ever read and one of the blogs I swear has turned me in to a pretty darn good food-maker. Thank you for the nod and yes, I will be making this tonight.

Your craving broccoli made me smile–pregnancy is such a funny thing. During my second pregnancy I craved caesar salad for months on end and must have eaten a hundred of them. I’d be nauseous and a caesar salad would be the only thing that would settle my stomach. No peanut butter & pickles for me either!

I hate raw broccoli (adore it cooked) and I hate mayonnaise. Yet for some reason, every holiday, when my mother sets the dish if this out (hers with sunflower seeds), I cannot keep my paws out of it. Literally. I walk by the table throughout the day and grab florets, furtively sneaking them in my mouth, trying to be inconspicuous about crunching on a humongo mini tree. You know, because I’m sanitary and all. (Hey, we’re all family. It’s all the same DNA walking around the house….)

I love this salad too. I only ever eat the salad mix in a bag one from Costco…which makes 10,000 pounds of salad that nobody but me wants to eat. My fear of terrible tasting dressing has prevented me from making it myself. I am soooooo happy that yours works well for this. Now I can make more manageable quantities of salad, and use up the random buttermilk I have in my fridge! Thank you. Love love love your site.

I was just looking for an easy vegetable side dish to make for a dinner party this weekend… this looks perfect!

I can one-up your iPhone story… several years ago, my family getting ready to leave a church event when my great-aunt (whose son is about 10 years younger than me) started panicking because she couldn’t find her two-year-old son. We started running up and down the hall, looking in the Sunday school classrooms to see if he was in there.

It took us all (5 of us) about a full minute to realize that she was holding him, asleep, in her arms.

I love to keep broccoli salad on hand, just for something relatively healthy to snack on. I use the really sweet slaw dressing, that’s why it’s only relatively healthy compared to the cookie I might otherwise grab!

I add julienned carrots to mine for additonal color and crunch, and use toasted pecans and crumbled bacon or pancetta. I don’t use the bacon grease though. I would probably add some halved sweet tiny tomatos to it with your dressing. I LOVE ranch style dressing with tomatoes..I could eat bowls of them that way!

Toasted almond slivers! Yes. They are the best way to fancy up a salad, pasta or rice. I also use them as a frugal substitution for pine nuts in a recipe- when toasted their flavors are quite similar.
(P.S. As a gal with a similar mission in the kitchen who’s also cooking in a tiny nyc kitchen… you truly inspire my creativity!) xogaby

I, too, have a raw broccoli aversion. When I worked in catering, we would always lightly steam (and then chill) the broccoli for vegetable dipping stations. A quick steam gets rid of that dry texture and makes the color really pop, but doesn’t sacrifice too much crunch. I have a giant bag of florets in my fridge right now – will give it a try steam-style and report how it goes!

Debra,
The oddest thing! and I swear….I just made a broccoli slaw, with Trader Joe’s broccoli slaw mix, grapes, walnuts and mayo vinegar dressing.
Then I opened your post and there you are!
Now, how strange is that?

Don’t worry about those cravings – my mother told me she craved ice cold iceberg lettuce! She’d wash it, wrap it in a towel and refrigerate until icy cold and crisp. She’d then drive my dad nuts while she crunched away on an entire head of plain old lettuce! This lasted the entire pregnancy! Obviously she probably needed iron!

this salad looks delicious, but i’m with alex on the “vegetables and sweet things cannot be paired” thing (cranberries). i had a bad experience with a beef stew-like dish where i bit into a nice hunk of potato (i love potatoes) and it turned out to be a nice hunk of pear… yech.

next time you lose your phone, you can yell “marco” and hopefully mom can help you out ;}

I watched Alton Brown make a broc salad the other night and have been thinking about it ever since. Yours looks even better. Will be dreaming of all that creamy, crunchy goodness until I try it.(Yes, I’m pregnant too.)

Dang, we must be on the same wavelength or something! Just yesterday I made the biggest batch of a similar broccoli salad, which is sitting happily in my fridge at this very moment. I also add bacon because… well… bacon. Broccoli is one of my favorite veggies, I gotta say. Raw or cooked, I just love it. As for the pregnancy-brain and looking for the phone while on it… uh… I do stuff like that all the time and am in no way pregnant, so don’t feel too bad. ;-)

This is an excellent “mom” dish — I have several in my arsenal. I’ll tell you why. This looks and sounds right up my alley, but my husband would never touch it. I have 3 kids and hardly the time for lunch. This looks as if it would make a big bowl. I’d make it on Monday and have it for lunch for several of the following weekdays. I’d alternate it with PB&J (or my new favorite — graham crackers smeared with crunchy peanut butter).

did you hear the old wives tale about cravings? if you dont give in and eat what you crave, the baby will be born with a birthmark shaped like that food. the lady that told me this story swore her sister had a birthmark shaped like a slice of country ham.
thankfully you arent craving baby ruths like i did. slaw with chocolate covered peanuts and nougat really would break the sweet/veggie combo rule.

Goshgoshgosh why does this sound so good to me? Dried cranberries are pretty much my favourite thing in the world. Broccoli is something I told my mother I would Loathe, Forever, and now kind of love, as much as you can love a green vegetable (-oh wait, I do love green vegetables. Hm). I think I have to eat this. Kind of now.

That salad looks great! Someone on CHOW.com asked about pregnancy cravings and it was really fun to read! I had all day sickness with both my kids for the entire first trimester and could only keep mostly dry toast down. At about 14 weeks my appetite came roaring back. I craved Mexican food with my first, and would get upset and tearful if I didn’t get it EVERY day. My second pregnancy was the Thai food and mashed potato diet. My husband made vats, I kid you not, vats of mashed potatoes for me with regular visits to the local Thai place and I was a happy girl!

I’m pregnant, too (due in October) and can’t get enough broccoli. Avocado, too, but that’s a whole different topic. Have you tried Ina’s broccoli with bowties? I could eat it by the gallon, even when I’m not pregnant. Steamed broccoli, toasted pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic. All over pasta. So, so good!!!

If I hadn’t just returned from the grocery store, this would get made *tonight*.

I adore your buttermilk dressing recipe so much that I make a double batch almost weekly. A friend gave me a garlic chives plant and I’ve been using those – the only change to your recipe. I have to restrain myself from chopping up the whole poor little plant…

I make Brocolli Salad with a package of brocolli that is already processed like a cabbage slaw. And I will try to find the recipe as I have no idea where it is at the moment. It is made with ramen noodles (uncooked) and toasted almonds and it is additive it is so wonderful. The dressing is made from the seasoning packet in the ramen noodles. Promise will find it and post it. Not that yours doesn’t sound good.
Dorothy

MMM. sounds yummy. Maybe I will be invited to a cookout and will take this. Too lazy to have my own cookout right now.
Have done a broccoli salad with bacon as mentioned by others above. Maybe when I make this I will have some bacon on standby in case I feel the urge. Savory is more my thing than sweet…
thanks and btw-
loved your appearance on PW’s blog. Wish I would have won the honor to be there.

GRAPES. Hope this doesn’t rock your world buuuuut, when I make this salad, I use halved green grapes and dark raisins. Just think – you can have your grapes and your brocolli too! (oh, and think sunflower seeds…)

We make this sort of salad at home except for we include bacon and sunflower seeds, and we use fresh grapes. If we have it in the pantry, we also put in half cauliflower. BTW, I have a 2 and 4 year old and I still do the cell phone thing. I was coming home from a restaurant the other day and I called my husband. He asked me how dinner went and I said, “fine, but I let Thomas play with my cell phone. I hope I didn’t leave it there.” There was total silence, until he had the nerve to point out that we were talking on it! Moral: it doesn’t go away after pregnancy!

I have a recipe for a Southern style broccolli slaw that graces many an Alabama table. It is made with the prepackaged “broccoli slaw”, sunflower seeds and a dressing with red-wine vinegar and toasted ramen noodles- not the healthiest, but oh so yummy if you need a bit more tang!

This slaw is one of my favorite foods. My family gets a little peeved that I make it all the time. There are times when I make an entire batch just for myself…I justify it by saying that it is broccoli based (and lightening up the dressing a bit).

Sounds wonderful. Re – the dressing: I recently discovered freeze dried shallots – I get mine from spicehouse.com – they are perfect for dressings etc (since I don’t always have shallots around) – and with 2 kids the less chopping the better.

Right after I had my first baby, a friend brought over a broccoli slaw made with pre-packaged slaw, peanuts and poppyseed dressing. The family loves it – tho I think I’ll introduce your more sophisticated version soon. Sounds yummy.
The pregnancy stupids are quite common. I got stupid and clumsy – not a good combo!

Yum! This was simply scrumptious with some bbq chicken! We made it with cashews and golden raisins, and I’m wondering if some crispy crumbled bacon might not be a delicious addition…

I’m kicking myself for not making your buttermilk dressing earlier… thankfully I oops-ed and doubled the recipe… I feel very smug, though, knowing I’ve got a big old jar of it in the fridge. I’m ready for any crudite that comes my way!

Next up… that rugalach-sticky-bun-ness. Mouth is watering just thinking about the post about them…

People..it isn’t the pregnancy that makes you lose your marbles..it’s the kid! I should say kids, as a single newborn is easy. The distractions that more than one child provide, are enough to make anyone forget where they put their head! (kidding..not really)

It is also good with bacon in it! I just had some for lunch on Mother’s Day at a buffet we went to. It is so yummy. I’m the only one in my family who likes broccoli, so I eat it when I can get it.

Oh, and the iphone thing… been there, done that… and wasn’t even pregnant at the time. Those babies do suck out some of your brain cells though! BUT, they are so totally worth it.

Congrats on your baby but don’t blink because it goes by SO fast. Enjoy and cherish every moment. My baby girl is now 13 years old and it seems like yesterday I was craving peaches while I was pregnant with her!

I was so excited to see that you featured this! My hubs and I love this, but we call it “Church Picnic Salad” due to its tendency to make an appearance at every covered-dish church function. I make mine a bit different…

I second, third, fourth, however many the comments that suggest adding bacon. Everything is better with salty, fried fat.

I also use golden raisins rather than cranberries, salted sunflower kernels rather than almonds. And my dressing is just mayo, apple cider vinegar, and sugar. I am such a southern cook, as I have no actual proportions written down, but I just mix it with a fork in a measuring cup, adding one thing or another until it tastes right.

We have also discovered that mixing it all together (minus the sunflower kernels) a couple of hours before we want to eat it makes the flavors meld together perfectly. Then we toss the sunflower seeds in right before we eat, so they won’t be soggy. Heavenly! Thanks for inspiring me – I’ve decided that I’m making this on Saturday for a family meal! :o)

I totally used your buttermilk dressing when I made this salad earlier this spring! I used bacon, and plain old raisins rather than the cranberries, but next time I’m doing the cranberries, how yummy! This is the only way my husband will go anywhere near broccoli (I’m usually not too fond of it myself), and he loved this stuff!

Broccoli is my favourite food – but for the first 20 weeks of my current pregnancy I couldn’t stand to be anywhere near it – or any other normally-yummy-green-leafies for that matter. Such a relief that things have returned to normal – reckon I’ll try your slaw. My due date was yesterday (waiting, waiting) – in the last week I’ve cunningly hidden the tea canister in the crockery cupboard, bought three litres of apple & strawberry juice instead of plain apple (I have a food sensitivity to strawberries…), and made an egg & ricotta pie sans eggs – even though I had the egg carton sitting in front of me on the kitchen bench from get-go. Baby-brain, hey.

THIS. Oh man. I have been reading this site for a couple of years, but am finally commenting! As soon as the page loaded and I saw that picture I already knew what to make for lunch tomorrow. I am so excited to try this! I love broccoli salads and have been determined to try a good one. I bought one at the grocery store once and was so disappointed. Mmm, this looks delicious!

I absolutely adore this type of slaw. Thanks for telling me what I’m hungry for. I have a big head of broccoli in the fridge with this recipe’s name on it! BTW, if I was a betting gal I’d say you’re cooking up a boy. Fruit cravings = baby boy. I had 2 girls and all I wanted was SUGAR!! The refined white kind.

Yum! I sure love your recipes. But you know what? Your writing is best. This suspiciously feels like one of these typical “oh, love love love it!” comments that everyone seems to hate, but I just had to tell you. So yeah, I love it!

Dear Deb, I have to say this salad looks excellent and just what i’ve been missing. However, I was wondering if you could give a recommendation for substituting something for the buttermilk. I’m an expat living in the middle east and buttermilk is nowhere to be found – believe me i’ve search high and low for buttermilk and sour cream. Sadly, they just aren’t available. If you have any suggestions for the buttermilk i would be grateful and immediately make this delicious salad.

Ooooh. I love broccoli and I love broccoli salad like this. My favorite Italian market (now sadly out of business) made theirs with chunks of sharp cheddar and bacon in with the raisins or craisins, sunflower seeds and red onion.

So lucky to be able to eat broccoli while pregnant. Broccoli was the very first food in a long string of foods that my body would reject on a regular basis all through my first pregnancy. If I tried to persist after I started getting the feeling that something was not quite right about what I was eating, my body would…er…take matters into it’s own gag reflex, LOL! All it had to be was the way something tasted, looked, or smelled, but the texture was usually the thing that triggered it.

This looks so good…I am going to make it for an upcoming Graduation party.

About the pregnancy “forgetfulness”- I had it bad with first pregnancy. It was so bad that I would forget if I fed the dog or not, so just to be sure I would feed her again. Well, as a result she gained 10 lbs. during my pregnancy! :-)

Ah, my grandma makes a salad like this, with bacon, and a mayo dressing, as some other posters have noted, and I love it! I loooove broccoli. I’ll be making this for with dinner when my boyfriend’s parents come round this weekend, but I’ll try the buttermilk dressing, which looks delish. Thanks Deb!
PS: Hope you haven’t had any more run-ins with ‘baby brain’; that iPhone story cracked me up.

BBAACCOONN!! This is our family favorite but we add tons o’ bacon, some grated cheddar, and sunflower seed kernels. Once a non-cooking friend asked for the recipe to serve some out-of-towners. I should have made a batch and taken it over, but she wanted to do it herself. She called later that night saying that she must have gotten some rotten sunflower seeds because they were so big and chewy and weird; they had all spent half the dinner time picking them out of the salad. My fault for not being explicit re sunflower seeds and sunflower seed kernels.

When I tasted some left over from a DH Safety BBQ at his work, I immediately went to the computer and looked up recipes for this. Of course, I had to modify it to suit my own tastes and what is habitually in my kitchen, which turned out to be sunflower seeds instead of almonds and zante currents instead of cranberries or raisins.
The buttermilk dressing is a whole new idea and now I will have to try that! BTW, I have also eaten Broccoli Slaw for Breakfast…and I have never been pregnant. It’s just GOOD STUFF:P

I love the idea of a buttermilk dressing with this. Broccoli Salad is a picnic/cookout/funeral lunch (seriously) staple down here in the South. Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without lots of bacon. And we tend to use raisins down here lest we seem too “fancy.” Thanks for the new twist!

Hola Deb!!!
I love love love ur site..
So i made this sometime last summer
‘cept without the almonds..
and with bacon and cheddar cheese mmmm..
and the dressing was homemade ranch, with extra sugar..
delicious.. =]

Yummmm…. The cook at the school I teach at makes something like this for the kids sometimes (and yes, they do eat it!) and I LOVE when she makes it. I think I’ll have to make some myself soon. Maybe for that potluck I have to go to Sunday? Actually I was thinking about making the rhubarb coffee cake for that one–my rhubarb is just big enough to harvest some.

When I was pregnant, I had a daily need for broccoli and green salad. I’m glad to hear I wasn’t alone in that! I had broccoli, polenta, and marinara for breakfast every day. But I never was that much of a breakfast food / cereal kind of person.

Wow. I’ve been making broccoli slaw for years, but it’s nothing like this one. Mine has almonds, sesame seeds, crushed uncooked noodles, green onions, uses broccoli slaw and cole slaw and has a dressing, believe it or not, seasoned with Ramen Chicken Soup mix. I’m going to try yours now- looks even better!

Thanks for another mouth-watering salad. Pregnancy does weird things. I craved nectarines and made my husband take me to Golden Corral. I also was very clumsy and broke almost all of our drinking glasses. We switched to plastic and never looked back.

That’s terrific that you are craving foods that are healthy for you! You won’t gain the..oh…65lbs or so that have to be somehow lost between feeding, sleeping, and changing poo after the baby is born! I wonder if a creamy vinaigrette would be good with this? That’s my current favorite salad dressing.

I make this all the time, usually I add some red pepper for color. It is one of my favorite pot luck dishes! When I fist started making it I just thinned out ranch dressing with a little vinegar and sugar, but now I make my own dressing, pretty similar to your buttermilk one here.

I love broccoli salad! I make it with bacon which is oh so good. Haven’t tried red onions in it, and I love them so I guess I’m making some for dinner tonight to try it out. Oh man, my mouth is watering already.

LOL. Love the recipe – sounds delicious. Can’t wait to give it a whirl.
Hilarous about the iPhone – I dropped at least 50 IQ points while pregnant… Looking for something with my right hand, all the while it was in my left. Luckily, you’ll get it back post birth (most anyway). :)

Well, I’m not pregnant :-( but this looks delicious though. And i was kind of in lack of inspiration for my tupperware lunchs for work, so at least I know what to look for at the farmers market next saturday! Thanks…

I don’t know. Call me weird. But I am kind of hot for grapes and broccoli..and I am not even pregnant. Love the sweetner of dried cranberries. Makes me think it would match well with a light, fruity red wine like young Sangiovese.

I’ve fallen head-over-heels for you! I stumbled across you while doing a hopeful Google search for al di la’s pear cake recipe. Heaven! This broccoli slaw sent my own pregnancy cravings for green vegetables into high gear and I needed it immediately. When my store was out of buttermilk I nearly cried, but substituted milk/lemon juice to decent results. Absolutely delicious! Even my broccoli-phobic husband liked it :)

Oooh, this looks really good! And I’m laughing about the iphone – I still have placenta brain, too. (I’m 6 weeks post-partum… can someone please tell me when my brain will return??) Oh, and my pregnancy craving was beets. You’re not the only wierdo. ;)

Broccoli slaw . . . yum. Much better than regular cabbage slaw, I must say. Our family has our own version (sorta) of this; actually the only similarities are really that it has broccoli and the same name . . . . Anyway, our invention: a bag of shredded broccoli stems from the store (or process it at home with carrots and some red cabbage) and dump it in a bowl. Add crumpled bacon, preferably crispy bacon. Add ranch dressing. Stir. Whallah, it’s done. It tastes awesome, too. I may have to try your version of “broccoli slaw” too, now, though. Along with Edamame it is one of the more easy side dishes we often fix for cooked meals because it fixes in minutes.

Like so many of your recipes, I printed this one out right away, made a trip to our tiny general store to get two heads of broccoli after work, and whipped it right up, not really connecting the fact that two heads of broccoli might make enough to feed an entire church supper crowd! Fortunately it’s so good that I think I’ll be able to finish it off myself, with a little help from my broccoli-loving daughter. Thanks! (And the dressing is great!)

Great recipe, for me summer is grilled steak, corn on the cob, tomato/mozz salad and broccoli slaw.
PS – nice mention of your website in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. I believe they called your pictures “food porn”!

I’ve been craving broccoli, too, and have been making something similar. Occasionally, I’ll add carrots and/or sweet bell peppers and/or apples, too. For the dressing I blend a bunch of lemon juice, a little mayo, a little salt and sugar, and a bunch of chives. It’s so nice and light with the sparse mayo and tangy from the lemon juice.

Just made this tonite (served it with simple roasted chicken), and *loved* it! The husband didn’t even mention the absence of bacon, which he loves in the fat-laden version he likes from the deli.
Your broccoli craving cracks me up. With my first pregnancy I couldn’t stomach even the *thought* of broccoli or shrimp, two foods I usually love!

I love a good broccoli salad..may I share my dressing? I use this as my base and I for a lot of things…pasta..coleslaw..potatoe salad..(add mustard) ect..it is very flexible..1 cup wjite vinegar..1 cup white sugar..1 can sweetened condensed milk..2 cups mayonaise..salt and pepper..blend well..keeps in refrigerator a long time..I always have it on hand..

I caved and made it yesterday. So much better with the dressing than with the mayo-heavy version I used to make. And I have some dressing left to use at will…Delish!!!! And flexible. I had no dried anything, not even raisens, except a nearly empty packet of dates. DATES. And you know, it was absolutely fine. I looked forward to those little pieces of dates. Thanks for a great salad, just in time for summer, pregnant or not!

Just made this – absolutely delicious! Looking at the recipe I thought it was going to be tart, but it isn’t. The dressing is just right and the toasted almond flavor really comes through. Thanks so much!

I made this last night, but omitted the almonds (didn’t have any!) and added celery, chickpeas, and a handful of shredded cabbage…had some things that needed to be used. It was delightful. Thank you. However, I ate so much of it, I don’t think I’ll be able to touch the rest…off to my parents it goes!!

This sounded like the best thing ever (and I am usually not a broccoli slaw person)… until I got to your last note about making it with cauliflower and your suggested modifications. I heart cauliflower!!

I love broccoli and I’m always searching or new ways to eat it! I’ll put this to the test this long weekend since I’m hosting a BBQ party and was searching your site for ideas for side dishes!
Thanks Deb!

I just recently discovered kohlrabi, which I’d never eaten before, and which tastes a heck of a lot like a broccoli stem to me. I wonder how that’d be, shredded and tossed into this slaw? I’ll try it and let you know! I like the idea of adding curry…and I like the cauliflower variation too! Looks like I’ll have a bunch of slaws in the near future :)

GIANT boffo socko hit! Big thumbs up all around!
Did I mention I never enjoyed food more than when I was pregnant? So go with it, girl! Enjoy the ride. Like you need my advice.
Just gonna say one more thing: when breastfeeding I had the sweet tooth of the Devil himself. That See’s Candy catalog that landed in our mailbox was XXXX PORN to me. So I await those recipes from you, dear.

1) iphone incident? totally a warning, get used to it.
2) buttermilk dressing? add liquor and I’d pretty much do shots of it. I suggest roasting seasoned green pumkin seeds and adding them too…well, whatever has the buttermilk dressing in it. In a word: awesome.
3)mean but true: ex bebedaddy new wife? chose to eat sonic while on bedrest bringing forth the christmas miracle. Neither one of them could be bothered to cook. Now she is gifreakinormus. Love the broccoli. Love it.

Ok…I just made this, and it was really good! I meant to use bacon and forgot, but I actually don’t think it would have made it any better, and I love bacon. I think the cranberries and the vinegar in the buttermilk made it awesome.

After salivating over your photos and recipes for some time, I finally took the plunge and made this slaw. It was fantastic. Served it with a t-bone and I was way more interested in the slaw than the beef! I used pine nuts and swapped out the buttermilk in the dressing in favor of sour cream which I had on hand. Dee.li.cious. Thank you.

I was getting ready to walk into the hospital to visit my sister, who had just gone through knee replacement surgery. I was panicking, because I couldn’t find my phone and I always take it with me when I leave my car. I told my sister how concerned I was and she said, ‘you’re talking to me on it right now’. Been there, done that.

Hi, Deb. Just wanted to let you know that I brought this to a dinner party last night and it was a big hit. I swapped in raisins for the dried cranberries, and whole toasted almonds (lightly chopped) for the slivered almonds. Everyone loved it. Thank you!

I just made this for a dinner party tonight and it’s so fantastic there might not be any left by the time my guests get here. I have stayed away from the buttermilk dressing in the past because I thought “eww…buttermilk?” but I am a complete convert. I do would do shots of it it we added some alcohol. The only modification I made to the recipe was to blanch the broccoli. I just needed that beautiful green color. Great job!

Congrats on the bun in the oven! I just finished a big bowl of this. Yum. I used prepackaged broccoli slaw because I was feeling lazy, celery and raisins. I also added raw ramen noodles on top before eating. Yummy! That dressing is amazing too. Thanks!

Hi Deb, I made this slaw with golden raisins and walnuts and left the sugar out of the dressing. Too fabulous for words. Served it with fried chicken and strawberry rhubarb crumble. Perfect Sunday dinner. Thanks for all of your food love! Oh yes, please do tell me that Ess A Bagel is still open. It was always worth the walk from 10th Avenue and 24th Street….

mmm, we made this this weekend for a BBQ … SO GOOD! We used dried cherries since we didn’t have dried cranberries. It was delicious! I usually don’t like cabbage slaw, so this was a good alternative for me! Thank you!

I just made this for dinner tonight, and it was excellent! I think the words “best slaw ever” may have come out of the boyfriend’s mouth. I made a double batch of the dressing so I can make the cauliflower version. Review to come!
Thanks for the recipe!

I love broccoli salad and my husband doesn’t, so when I make it, I get to eat it all by myself! I add a little cooked, crumbled bacon to mine, and I’ve tried cashews, sunflower seeds, soy nuts, and peanuts, all with equally tasty results. And as for dressing, I love homemade, but if I’m in a pinch, I use Brianna’s Rich Poppy Seed dressing OR Brianna’s Blush Wine Vinaigrette OR a combination of the two! All delicious!

This is so, so good. I admit I used the original dressing in the Apartment Therapy recipe–only because I’m allergic to dairy, so buttermilk is out for me. I think this is my new favorite salad, since i couldn’t stop, as you say, cronch-cronch-cronching the whole dang bowl. Luckily I’m the only one in the house crazy enough to love raw broccoli and cabbage in salad. Nom.

Oh, and during my first pregnancy I craved Taco Bell salads: Extra beans and tomatoes, no beef, no cheese. It got so that the manager would see me waddling up and make up my order before I even got there…we lived in a small town, only one Taco Bell.

Second pregnancy it was fried eggs. Seriously. Fried eggs. And Indian food. Third pregnancy, I honestly can’t remember what I was craving.

You have the BEST slaw recipes. Now I’ll have to switch between your blue cheese slaw and this broccoli one. I made it this weekend and it was quite the hit. I love getting to use the stalks and not just the pretty ends :)

I made this recipe for the get together at my dad’s house today…I haven’t had those kind of complements in a long time…everyone LOVED IT. I think I turned at least 2 more people on to this blog. Only one problem… the person who brought the potato salad was bummed…hardly anyone ate it! (whoops)

So made a practice run of this, before I make it for a BBQ in 2 weeks, for some friends I had for dinner tonight. BIG HIT. It was so good,like really enjoyed all around. Thanks for a new classic recipe in my house.

Fabulous recipe! And easily amended for endless flavor-themes! I used plain yogurt instead of buttermilk, and only 1-2 Tbsp mayo. I tried toasted walnuts and finely chopped dates. I tried grapefruit segments (not so good). But all of it makes raw broccoli a treat which is great for my my picky summer palette! As the heat/humidity prevail, all I want to eat is broccoli and icecream. Ha! Thank you!

Thanks for this amazing site and this fantastic recipe — I’ve been dreaming of recreating this type of salad but I was stumped on what to put in the dressing. This was absolutely perfect. I made it three times last week. Not even joking.

Quick question for you — can a high-end food processor do the job of a mandoline or does the mandoline have more finesse? I’m about to take the plunge and buy myself a good food processor — wondering if I should get a mandoline while I’m at it or if that would be redundant.

I didn’t realize there was such a range in food processors. I am sure an inexpensive one isn’t a bad place to start. Mandolines work differently; a lot more elbow work but a lot more precision in the shapes you can get. I spent $25 on my plastic mandoline; absolutely worth it. You can find them even cheaper, if you’re just trying to see if you’ll get use out of it.

I made this the day you posted it and it was AMAZING! Even the hubby liked it. Took to work for lunch the next day and now half the people in my office have made it multiple times. Now my husband is asking for it again! I plan to make this for our week long stay at the lake in June. Now you just need to come up with a breakfast slaw!

I have two good broccoli salads like this, one of which I is on my blog, from Mollie Katzen, and another one that my mom always makes for buffets. I always blanch the broccoli a little, just because raw broccoli weirds me out. Will definitely have to give this one a try.

I made this for a dinner party and everyone loved it – a great combination of healthy and tasty, plus it’s beautiful. For those among us who don’t know how to toast almonds (I had to look it up), just put them on a cookie sheet in a 250F oven for a few minutes. I started off using my mandoline for the broccoli but ended up having to chop some of the stems into smaller pieces anyway, so I just switched to a knife for the rest and found it easier. Maybe it’s time to buy a food processor. I also threw in another handful of cranberries at the end for more color, but since I had used 3 smallish heads of broccoli maybe my proportions had been a little off.

i noticed that another commenter said she replaced the buttermilk with yogurt. well, i strongly dislike mayo, so i replaced the mayo with Fage 2% plain yogurt, then added a little dab of canola oil to approximate some of the richness of mayo. it worked out really well. i ate a gigantic portion for dinner last night and am looking forward to having the rest for lunch at work today….

DeLISH! Even my broccoli-hating husband loved it and said he’d like to have it again (that’s HUGE). I usually find raw broccoli a bit strong so I blanched the raw broccoli for 10 seconds. Still crunchy and delicious =). THANK YOU!

Ooh, add me to the “bacon makes it better” group – my mother-in-law (great Southern woman that she is) makes a similar salad with broccoli, red onions, raisins and bacon. And what doesn’t go with bacon??

“Should keep up to a week in the fridge, if you don’t have any pregnant women nearby.”

Or any other fiendish people. I made this tonight And I highly doubt it will last anywhere near a week. The *cronch cronch cronch* is amazing, and tasty! Thanks to NYC for finally getting summery so that this felt appropriate. While mine is a tad more rustic – how did my brain ever think I could maneuver broccoli stalks on the mandolin – it’s still delish!

Your broccoli slaw puts to shame the crap bagged, shredded broccoli out there. My mom used to try to feed us ‘brocoslaw’ with the bagged mix and it was just…gross. This? Divine!

I’ve already made this twice this weekend. It’s even better, I have to say, with dried cherries than with cranberries, and I used plain yogurt instead of buttermilk. Already looking forward to lunch tomorrow…

Planned out dinner around this salad, arrived home from supermarket to discover I’d forgotten buttermilk and our mayo was past it’s use-by date. A few googles later and I had whipped up my first ever batches of homemade mayonnaise and buttermilk (soy buttermilk no less – which worked out better as we don’t handle lactose well). So I’m not sure how closely my version tastes to the recipe (esp as I only had olive oil for the mayo which made it very olive-y), but my partner wolfed it and he dislikes mayo. It is delicious and having recently found out I am pre-diabetic it is sure to be one of my staples. What I love most is that a serving goes a long way to the daily 2 cups of vegetables quota compared to a plate of flimsy leaves. And it so filling – with the sweet potato & white bean soup we made to go with it, we are stuffed! Thanks SK.

Made this this weekend for a bbq and it was a huge hit. Followed the recipe exactly. My sister and brother-in-law kept the left overs and apparently ate them for breakfast. Who knew coleslaw was breakfast fare? We all loved it. I cheated and used bag broccoli slaw mix. Worked perfectly! Thanks for a great recipe!

i have been craving broccoli so bad lately! i love this recipe, definitely going to be a regular at my house. i substituted skim milk for buttermilk, fat-free greek yogurt for mayo, and sherry vinegar for cider vinegar because that’s what we had in the house. it turned out great!

I tried this salad last night because I was trying to make some kind of salad out of things I already had; to pair with your baked Mac & Cheese (which is amazing by the way!) I had the broccoli, some red cabbage, 1/2 a carrot, red onion, toasted almonds and grapes instead of cranberries. I mixed up the buttermilk dressing and thought it didn’t look like enough for my giant mound of veggies so…….. I had some leftover dressing from your green onion slaw recipe and decided to add a couple tablespoons of that to the dressing. I didn’t know how it would taste, but it was actually really good! It added a fresh brightness to the dressing that worked really well. My boyfriend ate two bowls full and he doesn’t even like veggies. Thank you so much for all the amazing recipes.

Well THIS was a definite hit at our family’s Easter lunch – I served it along with a potato salad, a couscous salad, warm crusty bread, and smoked salmon and it was the runaway winner (recipe-wise, I mean – not much beats smoked salmon, if we’re gonna be all technical about it). I already can’t wait to have this for lunches this week.
I made the recipe exactly as written, except for the fact that someone had eaten the dried cranberries I’d bought in specially (GRRRR) so I subbed in golden sultanas (I’m sure there’s an American/English difference between sultanas/raisins that I should be able to translate for you, but I don’t know what it is. I suspect that sultanas are me are different from sultanas to you. Regardless). Anyway, they worked perfectly too, though I still want to try with cranberries as I love ’em.

Deb – I was craving broccoli and slaw today and I knew you’d have JUST the thing and of course you did! I’m so excited to try this tonight. I wanted to tell you I am a total cole slaw convert, thanks in no small part to the free stuff they dish out when you sit down at Lanskys on the Upper West Side. If you haven’t tried it yet you really should. Preferably slathered on their knish-wich.

I am loving this blog. I am a typical Italian girl that loves food. It is a good thing that I am a runner and can keep some of these calories off. But I am obsessed with being in the kitchen. My only requirement for when I one day have my own home is a nice big kitchen!! I love to take original recipes and alter them to make them low-fat. I love this recipe and I am going to make it low-fat with fat-free buttermilk and light mayo. We will see how it comes out! Thanks Deb. . . I am new on here and you are incredible! Maybe I will run into you on the streets on NYC sometime!! Happy Cooking and Baking!!

This is one of my favorite salads! In fact, I was pregnant with baby #3 when I first had it. We were in Monterey, CA on a little “Babymoon” and stopped in at the cutest little deli. There it was… broccoli salad, to die for broccoli salad. Even my hubby was hooked! We came home and I made it asap so I wouldn’t forget the ingredients. I browsed SK for a dressing and low and behold you had a broccoli salad too and with a killer buttermilk dressing! So, here is our version…
Broccoli florets
broccoli stems, sliced in food processor
red onion, small dice
green onion, bias cut because it’s pretty!
seedless red grapes, cut in half
raisins, golden or classic
sunflower seeds
bacon, because everything is better with bacon!
Enjoy! And thanks for the buttermilk dressing recipe, it’s perfect!

Just made this for a family reunion! Your site has been so great for those…totally bummed because this AND the strawberry rhubarb crumble got gobbled up before I had a chance to get my share!!
Anway, my add-ins were candied pecans and these amazing dried razzcherries…it was so good it hardly needed any dressing at all. Considered bacon, but had none on hand…

I made this salad tonight and it had the EXACT flavors and texture I was craving. My family & friends enjoyed it too. I served it on the side of grilled hot wings, coffee-cardamon brisket and baked spuds, oh and fresh sangrias.
Yeah, we stuffed ourselves, but had so much fun doing it.

OMG soooo good! I made it with a mix of veggies from my CSA – broccoli, cauliflower, purple carrots and fennel. The toasted almonds and cranberries are delish with the creamy dressing. Thank you, Deb!! I just found my new go-to summer potluck dish.

I didn’t make the salad, because we just bought some pre-made broccoli slaw at the store, but the buttermilk dressing was delicious mixed with it! Maybe someday I’ll make the salad, too. That also sounds good.

I checked this post out since to see if there’s a difference between what I’ve read on eatmedelicious.com. Well, I’m too glad to have clicked the link because you made my day in mentioning about the iPhone incident. I tried this and it’s certainly good!Maybe next week I’ll try the your suggested variation.

This is the best broccoli slaw I’ve ever had. Thanks!!
cranberries > raisins
I just love the tartness! And also the red onions AND shallots–sadly though, this dish renders you unkissable. Not for Valentine’s Day I spose.

THIS IS THE BEST BROCCOLI EVER! I hate the stuff, but this has converted me. I even by accident got “cherry infused” cranberres (ugh!) and it was still unbelievable. It’s great with the buttermilk. Thanks!

HUGE fan of yours Deb, however, I have to agree with Alex on the fruit/veggie combo thing. This recipe is very similar to a broccoli slaw that I make ~ I take the easy way though and get the broccoli slaw in a bag at Trader Joe’s..add some slivered red bell pepper, thinly sliced purple onion and sprinkle on some sunflower seeds. I just use regular, out of the bottle Ranch dressing, but I’m sure your buttermilk dressing would make it even better. .YUM!

Miriam — I do go back to recipes from time to time and update them, sometimes from reader tips, other times from retesting them myself. I always note that they’re “Updated” and what specifically has been updated in the recipe headnotes…

I have never told you that this is one of our favourite salads. It has already impressed … let’s see … my boyfriend, my mum, many friends, my colleagues (I prepared it for a Christmas party at the office) and – most of all – my French mother in law. After chasing for something similar to buttermilk in a French supermarket, we finally ended up with “lait Ribot”. When my mother in law saw us preparing it, she look at us a little puzzled and asked “So this is the kind of salad you eat in Germany?”. When she heard that, in fact, it was an American recipe, she was even more puzzled. Obviously, she had to update her prejudices about American cooking. The entire family liked it and her husband finished the bowl.

Just made this Deb, what a glorious recipe! I added some grapes because I had very little cranberries. They went along great and added some more moisture. I think this is going to be a staple of my summer BBQ season!

I made this salad tonight and it had the EXACT flavors and texture I was craving. My family & friends enjoyed it too. I served it on the side of grilled hot wings, coffee-cardamon brisket and baked spuds, oh and fresh sangrias.
Yeah, we stuffed ourselves, but had so much fun doing it.

Hi Deb- LOVE your blog and web site AND, I can hardly wait for your book (but I will)! Your writing style is informative and fun – you not only bring information but joy to your readers. Thank you!

The weather here in Oregon is just now starting to get nice and it has been an age since I made broccoli salad. Couldn’t remember what I put in it so of course came to your website and did a search and BINGO! VERY yummy and of course, I’ll be using your buttermilk dressing recipe on other dishes too!

This took me about three minutes to throw together but is insanely good. I am allergic to mayonnaise and raw buttermilk is never gentle to me, so I tossed the broccoli in some goddess dressing. Divine :)

I am addicted to this salad! Like someone else on the comments, I added 1 tsp of dijon mustard (the one with a lot of seeds), and an extra tsp of sugar and not salt. So yummy! Thanks for this recipe and introducing me to simple uses for buttermilk.

Broccoli is a staple in our house, which means I’ve been cooking it for 20+ years and am always looking for ways to make it new again. This slaw is perfect! I made it tonight & it was a hit all-around. Thanks for another great recipe.

I was wondering if there was any possible substitute for the cider vinegar in this recipe? We don’t usually use cider vinegar in our food here at home so we don’t usually have it lying around. Being a student, I have kind of a tight budget so buying a new bottle may be a little difficult for me. I’ve read that white wine vinegar may be an option but we don’t have that either.

I’m planning to make a special dinner for someone special soon and when I came across this recipe it sounded so good I was hoping to give it a try.

Absolutely delicious! Made this last night to use up the broccoli in my fridge. Substituted raisins for the dried cranberries, greek yogurt for the mayo and red wine vinegar for the cider vinegar. Another perfect salad Deb, thank you!

Oh my god. You are right. That is insane, right? And I cook broccoli all of the time. I made a creamy broccoli linguine the other day. And I make these freaking amazing broccoli parmesan fritters (that my son wouldn’t take one bite of; I nearly wept). I also love roasting it with a ton of lemon zest and garlic and red pepper flakes and finishing it with more lemon. Broccoli is in season now. I promise to try to populate the section more soon.

the idea is great, i tend to pour boiling water on the broccoli florets and then cool them…the color is brighter and somehow I think that raw broccoli might have a lot of undigestible cellulose at it’s surface…but I’m not a specialist…thank you for sharing this recipe…this website is very inspiring

Ok, so I made this and screwed it up in all sorts of ways, not even bothering to measure ingredients for the dressing, just throwing together some greek yoghurt, red wine vinegar, dab of mayo, dab of addictive garlic chili aioli from costco (ohnosheusedastoreboughtsauce!), way too much salt, spenda to compensate for salt, and tears of shame for thinking I could improvise with 2.75yr old hanging onto leg and 7mo old crying from highchair. Used prebought broccoli florets, chopped dried figs, chopped walnuts, diced cucumber. I expected it to be inedible.

Even with all of that, it’s still delicious. Finishing off the last of it now, <24 hrs later. Next time, will follow directions and probably eat it faster.

I have made this twice and it was a HUGE hit! I’m always concerned that people won’t like what I make, but this and the boozey french toast have been SO good. I cant’ wait to try more of your recipes, thank you!

Wow, so good! I used up the leftover broccoli we had, and then threw in along with some julienned carrots, handful of toasted sesame seeds, some yellow onion (no red in the fridge), and craisins. I couldn’t find buttermilk at my little corner grocery store (we’re in Japan), so I improvised with sesame dressing. So delish! It was sweet and savory; perfect for a summer night. I’m taking to heart what someone said above about slaw for breakfast and plan to having it in the morning with salted salmon on the side. Once we’re back in the land of dairy (aka, the States), I’ll give your buttermilk dressing a whirl. Thanks for the recipe.

i made this and your roasted garlic mushrooms tonight. no main course needed!
i substituted mayonnaise with glutenfreegirl’s “crack sauce” and tossed in some sliced tricolor radishes. will be making again very soon ;)

Made this for our 4th of July BBQ and it turned out perfectly!! It’s a very different slaw and I was able to prep everything ahead of time and combined the day of. My broccoli got obliterated in the food processor, so i might chop the florets into small pieces next time and shred the stems. Overall though, super fabulous!!

Just to say I have often looked at your blog but never actually got round to making anything!!! So today, after craving an iron fix (5 months pregnant), i’ve just made this slaw.. lovely! I’m in the UK and know that getting hold of Buttermilk is not easy (would usually make it) but just wanted to let other readers know that I found it in my small local Waitrose (and no i’m not in cosmopolitan london).. so it’s worth keeping an eye out for :-)

After the birth of my 2nd 9.5lb baby, a friend brought me a brocolli slaw over along with a casserole. Unfortunately for the rest of my family, but lovely for me, I ate the ENTIRE bowl myself, before dinner. Finally clueing in that was my body reminding me I needed to restock my iron levels.

I heard you today on NPR talking about this recipe. I’ve adapted the one from Paula Deen, but this sounds so much better. I’m going to make for a gathering on Saturday. Thanks. I’ve been reading your blog for some time now and do enjoy your talent. Thanks

Hello! I have NEVER commented on a blog or a website or anything in my life but I just had to tell you how amazing this broccoli slaw is. I heard you talking on NPR and I did not grow up a veggie fiend, but I found myself craving this before even trying it. I was just given a cookbook- At Blanchard’s Table, by a couple who had been to Anguilla, and I combined their Spicy Vegetable Slaw with your recipe. I added carrots, thinly sliced red peppers, and red cabbage, plus a tiny bit of mustard and celery seed to the dressing. My life is CHANGED by this salad, and none of my friends seem to understand on instagram, and my dad responded with…ugh…so I thought i would tell you how delicious it is. Your recipes are my go-to for any event and while I’m here, the creamed mushrooms on buttered toast are crazy delicious. Thanks!!

Well, I just tried this recipe from your cookbook and it’s AMAZING. and so simple. I was a bit sceptic (raw broccoli always scares me), but now I want to eat the whole bowl… This is definitely in my recipe collection.

What to do for lunch with a nice stalk of broccoli? Remembered you’d talked about a broccoli slaw. Had to substitute raisins for the cranberries and yogurt for the buttermilk; left out the onion. The almonds were toasted by the time the broccoli was julienned, dressing came together in a flash. Ate it out of a big bowl with a soup spoon. Delicious!

Editing to add that this slaw, now made with its proper ingredients, has become a summertime staple in my refrigerator. When broccoli is abundant at the farmers’ market I enjoy making up a “vat” to have on hand for easy, ready-made lunches. I mix the broccoli and red onion with the dressing and keep the toasted almonds and the dried fruit separate (so that they maintain their crunch and chew), to add to individual servings. Still eating it out of a bowl with a soup spooon :)

I made this recipe–finally!–from your cookbook (which I love love love!) for a New Year’s Eve party. It was divinely perfect, despite the fact that I forgot to toast the almonds–oops. So, I made it again with the toasted almonds the next day and it was even better!

Also, this was the very first time EVER I had chopped up broccoli (I usually buy frozen and steam it for sides). Much easier than I had expected! :)

As a current pregnant lady, I had to laugh when I read your description of this recipe. I’m in the “nothing sounds good” stage with food right now, so I’ve been clicking through Pinterest hoping to find something, anything, that appealed and this was the first one I saw! I just have to stop and get buttermilk tomorrow and then I’ll be good to go. Thanks Deb!

Amazon delivered your cookbook yesterday, and while leafing through it for the first time I discovered your recipe for broccoli salad. Now, my mother brought back a similar recipe from Canada some fifteen years ago which has since become a family favourite. It is with sunflower seeds and raisins and also contains bacon, and the dressing in the original recipe is just mayonnaise, vinegar (white wine vinegar if I remember correctly) and sugar. I usually substitute at least half the mayonnaise with yoghurt and use much less sugar (North American recipes often contain an awful lot of sugar, at least it seems that way to me – I’m German – so I invariably try not to use more than half the amount required in any given recipe). I was going to make this salad for a barbecue yesterday, minus the bacon, but when I read your recipe and realized I had almond slivers (I’d have had slices too but didn’t read properly), dried cranberries and buttermilk in the house I decided I’d try yours instead.
What can I say? Your recipe wins! The dressing is much lighter, the cranberries were really good with the rest, and I love almonds anyway. My husband, who already loved our “family salad”, agrees that yours is by far the better dressing, so now I have to alert my mother and siblings to these new (to us on this side of the pond) variations! Thank you!

L from G — Glad you’re enjoying the book so far. The recipes are exactly the same, only some language and ingredient suggestions have been made (i.e. Monterey Jack isn’t really a thing in the UK, we made other suggestions). The intros are the same as well. Both editions have metrics/weights but they are more thorough in the UK, and cup measurements have been removed. Hope that helps.

Still enjoying your recipes, both from here and from the book (our current favourite is the sugar snap salad with miso dressing, which I have pushed on just about everyone I know), but I just realized I never followed up on your reply. My question of three years ago was really: Do you have a list that I can download somewhere which shows relevant differences between the two editions, i.e. UK substitutes for US ingredients that are hard to get in Europe?
I live in Germany, and Amazon.de does not offer a choice between the US and the UK edition – you order the book and you get what you get, which is fine most of the time, but occasionally I could do with a “translation”. The question will probably arise again when your next book goes on sale (I am really looking forward to that!) Thanks, Linda

By far the best salad I have ever made! I started making this about four weeks ago, and I have probably made it every week since- including a brunch I hosted this past weekend. I need to cut down on making it because of the mayo!

On that note, is there a substitute for mayo that I can use to cut down on the carolic content (just so I can make this more often?). Im trying to fit back into a dress I bought two years ago :(

I used greek yogurt, plain, low-fat and the taste ended up being very metallic. It concerned me a bit, and I had to throw it out. I may try doing half-half with the yogurt and mayo. Or possibly just stick to my roots and use mayo.

HK–I used all greek yogurt, too, but added some lemon juice (about half a lemon’s-worth) and about 1 tsp of dijon mustard. Except for that greek yogurt tang, it was almost identical to the dressing made with mayo.

Found your site via Elise Blaha Cripe’s blog. I’ll be back (in my best terminator voice). mmm, just made the broccoli salad last night. today it’s gone. even my 3 year old devoured it! with the serving spoon.

I made this for Christmas brunch and we enjoyed it, but didnt LOVE it. It needed more dressing and more craisins for my taste. So, I added to the leftovers and it’s still just really good. It keeps really well though and I love having an easy side dish in the fridge. Thanks!

Hi Deb, you keep tantilisingly mentioning this slaw and I’ve been skipping over it because of the buttermilk (I’m lactose intolerant)-but broccoli is in season here in Sydney at the moment and I want to give it a whirl! Would you be able to recommend a substitute or point me towards an alternative dressing? Thanks and Happy New Year!

I am a broccoli freak! Do you have broccolini in US? Also love that. I do a version of this salad but also shread the raw broccoli stalks also so you get a sort of broccoli slaw itself. Does that make sense?
Amazing! your blog is beautiful

I made this (from your wonderful cookbook) for lunch today and it was delicious. As I was combining the ingredients I divided them across two smaller bowls and promptly put one of them in the fridge. This is the *only* reason I didn’t eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Okay so I just made a completely vegan and bastardized version of this…and it’s incredible. Let it be known that if I ever get pregnant, I will eat this for every meal. I used a mix of vegan mayo, apple cider vinegar, sugar and olive oil in place of the other dressing ingredients. So so good.

Just made a bowlful of this and had a few tastes before I had to put it in the fridge for dinner tonight OH MY GOODNESS!!!!…this is THE best broccoli salad EVER! I can’t wait for dinner…I think the fettucine alfredo will be ignored tonight. This is definitely a keeper.

This is the second thing I’ve made from the cookbook! Had to come here and post…I don’t even like broccoli salad, but ate half of the bowl!! I think chopping the cranberries is key. No buttermilk in the fridge, so did the milk/yogurt substitution.

My friend Sharon made this slaw for a family of a very ill friend who was coming out of a rough bout of chemo. The friend hadn’t been able to enjoy raw veggies, but was tantalized by the sight of this slaw. She ate a big serving and loved it so much. A seemingly small thing, but this recipe brought a moment of encouragement to a tough situation.

Deb, what do you think of the bacon addition? Is that taking this recipe in a direction you don’t think it should go? I’ve enjoyed a broccoli slaw/salad before that had bacon in it but I don’t want to turn this one into that if its simply not improved by bacon…

Meghan — It’s not really my thing. I find that bacon gets soft in salads, and then the fun is gone. I’d rather have my bacon crispy in solo-strips, so I’m probably not the best person to ask. It does sound like, however, among people who enjoy bacon in salads, they like it here too.

I just wanted to mention that this dressing is lovely on chopped romaine salads, as well — I use a smaller amount, and I don’t dry the romaine leaves very thoroughly so the residual water from washing thins the dressing a bit. Also I sub Greek yogurt for the buttermilk because I always have it around. It’s sort of ranch-ish enough for the kids but my husband and I like it, too.

I made this yesterday, since I am thinking about making it for a potluck next week and wanted to do a trial run. I could have stood in the kitchen and eaten the whole batch, and I don’t especially like red onion. It didn’t matter though, it was perfect just the way it was. I think I’m going to go to the store tomorrow for more broccoli.

YAY! Finally someone who understands the wonder of (peeled) broccoli stems! People usually look really weirdly at me when I start to prep it. I think it might even be my favourite part of the broccoli – and I do love the rest too.

I, too, was a broccoli-craver when I was pregnant. The really funny part was that, before I was pregnant? I could only eat broccoli if it was coated in melted cheese or cheese sauce. The medical technologist that came to draw my blood (at 5:00 am–yes, it’s been 34 years and I STILL remember the time!) told me I was “the talk of the lab.” Having never been the popular girl, I wore it like a badge of honor. :-)

Rani – you could make fake buttermilk by souring non-dairy milk with vinegar. I have done it with coconut milk and almond milk. The almond curdled but the coconut thickened nicely(but the coconut flavor might be odd here. Maybe cashew milk?) Im nursing a baby with a dairy allergy; things have gotten weirdly creative in my kitchen as a result.

Love love love this! Changed the sugar to truvia and added salt and pepper, plus celery seed! Also, I did not have cranberries or almonds, so I used pecans lightly toasted plus dried cherries! Great result! Everything you post is fabulous!

I finally made this dish today and it didn’t disappoint. I really liked the contrast of flavors and textures. I did make one addition, however, that was really delicious: chopped kalamata olives. I foresee making this often!

Thank you, Deb! I don’t like raw broccoli but you convinced me to give it a try. It’s absolutely delicious. I used the food processor but half way through, I hand chopped the rest of the florets since the food processor was too powerful. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. I will be making this again and again.

Deb, you should definitely make a pregnant lady cookbook. I’m 35 weeks and I bookmarked this recipe THREE TIMES before realizing “Ohhh, yeah, I need some iron…” I am stuffing my face full of this deliciousness right this very moment and soooooo happy.

I have made this recipe 100 times and am obsessed with it! This time the grocery store was out of buttermilk so I used only greek yogurt and vinegar as the sauce and it was awesome! I also added pistachios and raw shaved brussels sprouts. First time in years I have deviated from your instructions!

I’ve made this recipe many times over the years, and it never disappoints! It’s a forgiving recipe as far as substitutions (I’ve subbed yogurt for mayo, different nuts or dried fruit, depending on what I have on hand), and it always turns out great. I tend to use shallots rather than red onion (just a personal preference) for a milder flavor. I love bringing this to potlucks, and am always disappointed when there aren’t any leftovers to bring home :) The leftover buttermilk always goes to good use for pancakes the next day as well. Love this recipe!

Yummmmmm! We’ve had this twice in the last week, so good. I just use yoghurt in the dressing as we always have that in the fridge, and I love it with the onions pickled. I also like to rehydrate the dried cranberries a bit. Thanks for an awesome recipe!

I made a double batch of this for a work Christmas lunch back in December. Bulked it out some more with chopped radishes, chopped celery and chilled boiled edamame beans. Took your suggestion of using the pickled onion in the dressing.

My contribution was the only one that didn’t have leftovers and everyone asked for the recipe. I directed them all to your site. :)

I am addicted to this salad. I have made a few changes but it’s the dressing!!! I do add some cauliflower and use raw cashews instead of almonds. I make a big batch and eat from it at breakfast, lunch, and supper. It, along with other fruits and vegs, and some protein has helped me lose 81 pounds so far. Thanks for sharing such a healthy recipe. It’s the only recipe I use buttermilk, so when I buy a liter, I freeze it in 1/2 cup containers and thaw as needed.

When including the stems (waste not/eat well!) we thought using a half cup rather than a third cup of cranberries offered a more optimal sweet/savory balance. I also added roughly a teaspoon of lemon zest, very finely grated, which brought a lovely brightness.

As many have stated above, this recipe is super versatile. I was out of mayo and subbed in Greek yogurt, which was still delicious. I have a really hard time with raw onion and yet this went down just fine. Like, an embarrassingly large bowl in one sitting fine.

I love this slaw, I have made it multiple times. Most of the time, I do as the recipe mentions and just use extra red onion instead of buying shallots (I never have them around). I have made it both ways, and can’t say I notice a difference either way. This is a great item to bring to cook-outs, pot lucks, and the like.

I love broccoli, and I REALLY love Deb’s corn bread salad, so I was very excited about another iteration of buttermilk dressing. Unfortunately I found this dressing a little bland and unexciting. Luckily, I just used the buttermilk dressing from her corn bread salad and it worked out perfectly (the florets help to soak up the buttermilk, even though the dressing is a bit thinner).

Amazing. Veganized it with Just Mayo and soy buttermilk (1/2 cup soy milk curdled by a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice). The pickled red onion was the icing on this broccoli cake. Wow! Thank you for your consistent generosity in sharing such yum with us. I’ve yet to be anything but smitten with your recipes.

I’m so thrilled! When I first saw this recipe I thought it looked very similar to the buttermilk broccoli salad at Mighty Quinn’s BBQ here in NYC – a salad that, as the millennials say, *is life*. I did everything as listed above but added about 5 slices of thick-cut bacon, sliced into roughly half-inch pieces and then cooked until crisp (while I chopped up the broccoli). Oh, and I used sour cream in place of mayo because I realized too late I was almost out of Duke’s. I can’t get over how good this slaw is. It is definitely going into my regular rotation. Thank you!!

Deb! This is all I ever want to eat these days. Genius. I followed the recipe exactly to rave reviews. Love the idea of soaking the red onion in the dressing for a bit before mixing the whole salad together – it makes it’s bite much more pleasant.

This is one of my favorite side dishes of all time – packed with flavor, simple, and beautiful to look at! I definitely recommend making it a day ahead of when you anticipate eating it to allow the juices to come out as it can be a bit dry right after making it. It looks like you don’t have enough dressing initially but after a day or two it is perfection. I have given tons of people this recipe!

Love this recipe. And really enjoy your “notes”. Great mental picture of you waiting for kids to move out of your way. Although not pregnant (am a grand mom of six) I have been eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I take it out of the frig thinking, hmm, just a fork full. Fork goes in the sink (would’nt want to contaminate the bowl) and then another forkful and so it goes- until the utensil drawer looking bare.

Very tasty indeed. I took the liberty of using dried sour cherries rather than dried cranberries, because no one here seems to like cranberries and I think sour cherries have a similar effect. I will make this again.

This was crunchy, refreshing and delicious! I used a bag of broccoli slaw made from the inner stems that I bought at Trader Joe’s. The 1 Tablespoon of sugar in the dressing was a bit sweet. Next time I will use half that amount. Also, the chopped raw onion did rather harsh the overall vibe of the salad. Next time I will take your advice and use pickled shallots. Definitely will make this one again as I prefer it to cabbage-based slaw.

Love broccoli salad. I’ve been making this for many years. Of course, everyone has their own version. Mine uses toasted pine nuts, sliced mushrooms, bacon, and currents. I make my own slaw dressing with mayo vinegar and sugar, balanced for good tartness. The salad is best after after it’s dressed and is chilled for a couple of hours. It softens the broccoli to a better texture. I usually toss the bacon and pine nuts just before serving to keep the crunch.

First things first, I was reading this thinking “wow, I didn’t know she was pregnant!” .. then I realized this was posted back in 2009. Yeah.. don’t mind me.

Second, I love love love this recipe. It is the only way I make broccoli salad now. Which I love to make, a lot. In fact, I’m making it tomorrow. The only (small) change I make is adding bacon. Because, you know, bacon makes everything better.

This is my go-to potluck dish. In fact, just today I agreed to bring it to another potluck next week. I’m making double so there will be enough for the party and maybe even some to keep at home. Every time I make it several people ask me for the recipe. It’s great!

Hi there! I’ve been wanting to make this broccoli salad for so long and I have the chance to make it for a potluck, but for the potluck it has to be but free? Do you think pepitas would be a good substitute for the almonds? Sunflower seeds?
Thank you!
Michelle

I made this for tonight, to go with an otherwise heavy Erev Yom Kippour dinner. I thought it was great! Much to my shock and delight, my raw vegetable-phobic MIL has been sneaking forkfuls out of the fridge–I finally just served her some for lunch. Bless you for saving me from her usual request of overcooked, underseasoned broccoli!